title: Effect of tuftsin stimulation on the microbicidal activity exerted by blood monocyte-macrophages of leprosy patients.
abstract: The ability of blood monocyte/macrophages from normal donors, tuberculoid leprosy (BT/TT) and lepromatous leprosy (BL/LL) patients to exert enhanced microbicidal activity was assayed after stimulating with 0.8 microM tuftsin, as a function of the duration of cultures in vitro. Normal and BT/TT macrophage cultures showed a statistically significant increase in microbicidal activity against Staphylococcus aureus at all ages of culture (6 h to 14 days), though the overall magnitude of the enhancement shows a decrease with increasing culture age in the same populations. However, 14-day old BL/LL macrophage cultures were unable to undergo tuftsin-mediated stimulation of microbicidal activity against S. aureus and even, fresh 6 h-old cultures exhibited a tuftsin-stimulated response profile similar to 14-day old normal and BT/TT cultures. Also, 7 and 14-day cultures of normal, BT/TT and BL/LL macrophages were unable to inhibit/kill intracellular Mycobacterium leprae after a single stimulation with 0.8 microM tuftsin. However, serial, daily stimulation with 0.8 microM tuftsin resulted in 77-140% inhibition of 3H-thymidine uptake by the 12th day of cultures in vitro in the three groups. These results suggest that BL/LL macrophages exhibit a premature inability to undergo tuftsin stimulated microbicidal activity, which may possibly be reversed by serial dosage of tuftsin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Iyer
authors.forename: H K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Bhutani
authors.forename: D N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Rao
mesh_terms: D001770:Blood Bactericidal Activity / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007918:Leprosy / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D015440:Leprosy, Lepromatous / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D015441:Leprosy, Tuberculoid / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D008264:Macrophages / Q000276:immunology; D009000:Monocytes / Q000276:immunology; D009166:Mycobacterium leprae / Q000276:immunology; D010586:Phagocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000276:immunology; D014405:Tuftsin / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D014405:Tuftsin